Names ending in a

Adwoa is a given name used for women born on Monday in Western Africa, particularly Ghana and some parts of Togo and Ivory Coast. The male equivalent is Kwadwo.

The first bride on "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire." -- not the classiest of names.

Unusual and appealing, Laurenza might make a perfect honor name for an ancestral Laura or Lawrence. Count Laurenza among the unknown-yet-usable Italian names for girls.

Lilting and pretty, but with plenty of substance, Amila is a name that works easily in different cultures. Similar in sound to international favorites, Amelia and Mila, it feels familiar but with a twist.

An Italian word name that somehow feels incomplete in itself.

Māori form of India, also found as a male name: the Māori form of Aeneas.

Cana is well-known to readers of the Bible as the city where Jesus performed his first miracle. If other place names, both modern and ancient, real and mythical, can be baby names, why not Cana? Rhyming with Dana, it can work for either gender.

Carita may feel like an endearing nickname but it's a name in its own right, used throughout Scandinavia in this form and as Karita, Caritas, and Karitas as a variation on Charity.

An intriguing variation of classic Mary that could act as a more inherently feminine alternative to the rising unisex Micah.

A Roman name that's unused by English speakers today, but might appeal as a shorter, lighter alternative to Aurelia. The Latin vocabulary word aula also meant "hall".

Lovely Japanese choice that would translate well cross-culturally.

St Quiteria was a 5th century virgin martyr who was killed after refusing to renounce her Christian faith in order to marry. Her name may derive from Kythere ("the red one"), a title of the Phonecian mother-goddess Astarte, perhaps via Greek Kythereia, an epithet of Aphrodite. The French version is Quitterie.

Although the saintly Gratia was male -- Blessed Gratia of Kotor -- this name feels quite female today.

This alluring Spanish word name has the quirky meaning "hazelnut". Avellana has a beautiful sound, although it may be misheard as the trending Avianna.

Has a pleasantly fizzy, effervescent feeling.

This version of the more familiar Paulina is occasionally used in the US, though some may see it as relating more to the word pole than to the classic Paul.